Bragg Family South

I see that it has been a couple months since my last blog, so I better get my act together, and get a few more pictures and stories out there...Beth is pictured above with one of the little girls we go to church with who just adores Beth (and vice versa).  We have stayed extra busy since the last blog post (when Beth, Stephen and I had gone out to Montana in July).  I just haven't been as diligent in reporting on our activities... Since Montana, we've: Kept the world at bay by playing some new board games (well, at least Hope and the kids have)... Kenny's gone on several Scout camping trips... Beth and the cats have taken MULTIPLE naps... We managed to catch a minor league baseball game in Little Rock... We took advantage of the long Labor Day holiday weekend to visit the Shiloh Civil War battlefield again... And on that same long weekend, when we weren't at our campsite we went to the Memphis (Tennessee) Zoo and the IKEA in that c...

So who is this "corny" guy that is so befuddling to Beth?  And where were we?  More on this later... As some of you know, we (Beth, Stephen, and I) just returned from 10-day long trip out to the western U.S.  I had a business meeting in Bozeman, Montana, and we decided to wrap that meeting around some family vacation time...Well, at least those who could go (Hope and Kenny had other commitments that kept them in Arkansas during this period).  The remainder of Bragg Family South piled into our minivan and headed north towards southwestern Minnesota, our first National Park/Monument/Historic Site on this trip.  Our destination was Pipestone National Monument, which preserves a cliff line made of a soft, pretty reddish stone that Native Americans carved into pipes (hence the name) and other objects.  Below, Stephen examines an outcrop of this rock while doing his Junior Ranger badge: Beth and Stephen enjoyed climbing on the rock outcrops there: ...

We don't usually take family pictures in a bathroom, but this is part of the joy of living in the South--having to shelter in an interior room when severe weather blows in, as it did this night.  The tornado sirens in the park next door went off, and off we went! This year's summer archeological dig happened in northwestern Arkansas, at Pea Ridge National Military Park.  Pea Ridge was one of the largest Civil War battles west of the Mississippi River, and proved an important early Union victory in the war.  As with many Civil War battles, the lore and legend of the engagement are better documented than the actual battlefield, so with the graces of the  National Park Service, the Arkansas Archeological Society and Arkansas Archeological Survey conducted some excavations and surveys of various parts of the park.  Pictured above is part of a large field that was part of the battle I worked during my week there.  Pictured below is the beginning of the "...